Brussels, 14/06/2012 (Agence Europe) - By adopting the non-legislative resolution on the arms trade by a very large majority (612 votes in favour, 18 against and 36 abstentions) on Wednesday 13 June, the European Parliament sent a clear signal to EU member states to adopt a strong common position during the International conference on 2-27 July at the UN headquarters in New York. After four years of negotiations on the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), this conference may be able to succeed in obtaining its ratification.
The parliamentary resolution was developed on the basis of several principles, clearly similar to those promoted by the European External Action Service (EEAS). The new international treaty will therefore be based upon “the adoption of the highest, strongest and clearest possible set of standards; must strengthen accountability and its implementation must be open and transparent”, with mechanisms for inspecting application and compiling reports. It must also ultimately propose strict evaluation of the country where the sale is finally made, an evaluation that is subject to the conclusion of a contract based on several criteria (economic, social, democratic and humanitarian standards).
Although everybody agrees on the need for such a treaty, some people are not quite as certain about the provisions (on the definition of what constitutes the transfer of arms and the production under licence), both at an EU level (the European export market is dominated by France) and for several international exporters such as the US, Russia and Israel. Although the EU has relatively strict criteria, it is not certain that the other actors will attempt to follow the same road. It is likely that in order for an ATT to be adopted, the Europeans will have to make a number of concessions, particularly with the scope of such legislation.
Moreover, it is on this last point that the Parliament is likely to dig its heels in. If the ATT is to be considered effective “it should cover the widest possible range of activities in the trade in conventional weapons; manufacture under foreign licence, stockpile management, and all related services including brokering, transportation and finance”; and it should “also cover the widest spectrum of conventional weapons; including state-to-state transfers, state-to-private end-user transfers, commercial sales and leases, as well as loans, gifts, aid or any other form of transfer.”
Some of the amendments voted on have a significant impact and the Parliament amended the initial text with regard to the following points (all the amendments quoted were proposed by the Greens/EFA and the S&D): the reference to a contribution that is economically beneficial to the arms industry was removed (473 votes in favour, 186 against, with 11 abstentions); the proposal to include “dual-use goods” in the ATT was not adopted (319 for, 319 against, with 34 abstentions); national reports on arms transfers should be made public (349 for, 309 against, 9 abstentions). (JK/transl.fl)